A Valentine's Day story, part two

Breakfast was a revelation for the little man who was a sentient bag of sulfuric acid. He enjoyed cereal. He enjoyed fresh fruit. He enjoyed buttered toast. In fact, he enjoyed everything he was served. But one food stood out among all the rest. He found that he was especially fond of milk.

"What do you call this white liquid?" he asked. "It's delicious!"

"Uhm," the mother replied. "Milk?"

"Milk? I love milk? Milk? is delicious. Can I have another glass of milk?" he asked.

"No," the mother said. "It's not always "milk" with a question mark at the end. It's just 'milk,' plain and simple."

"Oh," he said. "Can I have another glass of milk plain and simple."

The mother paused and thought for a moment about how to respond. "I'll get you another glass of milk," she said.

"Plain and simple," he said.

"Uhm, yeah," she said, looking over to her husband, who was doing his best to focus on the morning paper and not truly succeeding.

And so he grew. Whereas before he was one foot tall, by the time breakfast was over he had nearly doubled in size. This seriously concerned the girl's parents, who were not too happy about having a man who was a sentient bag of sulfuric acid inhabiting their home, let alone one who could suddenly double in size without so much as a moment's notice.

The mother and father hid behind the newspaper and whispered to each other in serious tones.

As they were whispering, the girl coughed and said, "I have to bring my Science Fair project to school today."

"Science Fair project?" asked her father and mother simultaneously.

She pointed over to the little man and said, "Him. He's my Science Fair project."

"Well, honey, let's, let's think about this for a minute," her father stammered.

"I think it's an excellent idea!" her mother exclaimed. "And come to think of it, it's time you were off to school. Get your things, and bring your little man with you."

"Dear," her father asked her mother. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, after all, he's made of sulfuric acid. What if he harmed another child?"

The girl looked at her creation and asked, "You wouldn't hurt anyone, would you?"

He shook his head vigorously, which caused the sulfuric acid to slosh around inside him. "I would never dream of it!" he said.

"It's settled then," her mother said. "Go get your things. The bus will be here in just a few minutes."

And so she went to school with her sulfuric acid creation. They got on the bus together, and he sat right beside her, which was fine with her, since no one ever sat beside her on the bus. Before the bus was in motion, the girl stood up and announced for all to hear, "This is my friend. He's made of sulfuric acid. Don't touch him, because you might get hurt. He's my science project, and he's very smart."

The other children on the bus were stunned. A boy in the back started to make a rude comment about the little man who was a sentient bag of sulfuric acid, but he was quickly shushed by other children nearby. No one said a single word the rest of the trip to school. And when they arrived, the girl and the little sulfuric acid man were the first ones to exit the bus, while all of the other children waited patiently for them to leave.

As they walked together into the school, the little man looked over and smiled at her, and she looked over and smiled at him. "It's nice to have a friend," they both thought at the same time.

Because the school was overcrowded and understaffed, her very first "class" every day was lunch hour.

"Come on!" she said. "We'll have lunch together and then go to the Science Fair!"

"Sounds great to me!" he said cheerfully. "Can I have some milk plain and simple?"

"Definitely!" she said. And so they both sat together at the same table and shared lunch, not noticing that all of the other kids were keeping a safe distance and muttering to each other. Nor did they notice when two girls left a nearby table, approached a group of teachers and pointed in their direction.

A few minutes passed, and then suddenly everything seemed to happen at once. Teachers surrounded the girl's table where she and the little man were eating. An alarm went off and the Principle started to speak over the PA system. "Hello, children! We are going to have a very quick fire drill. There is nothing to worry about. Please proceed quietly and orderly to the nearest fire exit. Listen to your teachers and behave, and we'll be finished in just a short while."

As all of the other children got up from their tables to leave, the girl and the little man began to do the same.

"Stop!" one of the teachers ordered. "Stay in your seats."

The girl and the little man looked at each other.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked.

When no one answered, the little man said, "Heck if I know."

The wailing of the school's fire alarm was met by the screaming sirens of multiple emergency vehicles screeching to a halt in front of the school. A group of men burst into the cafeteria wearing what looked for all the world like space suits. As they approached the girl and the little man made of sentient sulfuric acid, one of the men exclaimed, "Look out! It's growing!"

And so he was. And so he did. The little man who was a sentient bag of sulfuric acid stood up, stretched, and before their eyes became over six feet tall.

"Sorry about that," the not-so-little man made of sulfuric acid told them. "Milk plain and simple has that effect on me. But not to worry. I won't grow any taller now. I've reached my limit. But tell me something. Who are you guys? And what's with the fancy getup?"

One of the men in space suits grabbed the girl and yelled, "We've got to get her to safety!" And as he picked her up and ran with her out of the room, she kicked and shouted, but he was just too strong.

"Stop!" she cried. "Leave us alone! We never hurt anybody!"

And with that she was whisked out of the room and out of the school and put inside an ambulance that already had its siren wailing and lights flashing. As they brought her inside the ambulance, she saw that waiting there were her father, her mother, and Doctor Lerner.

"It's all going to be OK now," Doctor Lerner said calmly. "We're taking you to the hospital just to be checked out, and then you'll be able to go home in a little while with your mom and your dad. They are both so concerned about you."

"Yes," her father agreed. "Your mother and I thought a great deal about it after you and that little man left this morning. We decided that it was just too dangerous for you and other children to be around sulfuric acid, no matter how nice it might seem. It was foolish of us to let you go in the first place."

"But he IS nice!" she cried as the ambulance sped off to the hospital. "And I'm going to get an F on my Science Fair project now! And it's all your fault!"

And she suddenly realized that this was the very first time she had ever talked back to her parents. But what startled her even more was the realization that it was, in fact, all her parent's fault. All of it.



Back at the school, the men in the Hazmat suits forced the now full-grown man who was a bag of sentient sulfuric acid into the back of a containment vehicle.

"Hey! Stop prodding me!" he said to them. "And where are we going anyway?"

"You'll find out," one of them said. "Just get in the truck."

"I'm gettin', I'm gettin'," he said.

He sat in the back of the containment vehicle, the door slammed shut and he found himself in total darkness.

"What now?" he asked himself.

And without the girl with him he started to feel sad and lonely, and more than a little bit afraid.

                                                              To be continued